Max Verstappen breaks records in Spanish GP

Max Verstappen made history in the Spanish GP on earning his first ever Formula 1 win on the day that he was making his Red Bull debut. Verstappen became, at the same time, the youngest driver ever to win a Formula 1 race at the age of 18 years, 7 months and 16 days. It will be a difficult record to beat. As well as that, he is the first Dutch driver to ever win a Formula 1 race.

On the podium, Verstappen could not believe what he had achieved: "I still can't believe it. It has been an exceptional race and I have to thank the team for giving me such a good car." He also had words of thanks for his father, Jos Verstappen: "Ever since I was really small my father has helped me a lot, and I've achieved this thanks to him."

Verstappen confessed the secret of his win, namely the management of his tyres. In his last stint, he chose to conserve his tyres and let Kimi Räikkönen close in on him in order to, in the final stretch, have them in better condition and defend himself better with his DRS. "I'm not here for that [to shut people up]. I'm here to have fun and to win" said the Dutch driver in response to one journalist's question. "I knew it was going to be difficult but you just have to adjust your mind and think about your tyres. On the last lap I was driving on ice, I was skidding a lot", Verstappen ended by saying.

The record that he beat today was previously held by another driver who accompanied him on the podium today, Sebastian Vettel, who won his first F1 race, the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, driving for Toro Rosso at the age of 21 years, 2 months and 11 days. Verstappen also took away Vettel's record of being the youngest driver in history to go up to the podium. These two records are in addition to another he set last year, that of being the youngest ever driver to start an F1 race, which he did at the age of 17 years, 5 months and 17 days.